This is the story of a magician and an elf girl.

"Oh, you finally--"

"Shut up and drop your weapon."

The gatekeeper turned around and found two tiger claws on his neck. He loosened the spear in his hand and raised his hands in surrender. The reason for not killing him was that the current situation required not blood and flesh, but intelligence and hostages.

"Where does this road lead to?"

"You... who are you... from... where are you from..."

"Answer my question and I won't ask it a second time."

"Alas!!"

John clasped his hands together and pressed the other person against the wall to threaten him. His courage alone frightened the gatekeeper. He could not lie for a short period of time and naturally told the correct information. Humans are intelligent beings who cannot think for a short period of time and can only tell the truth.

"It's an arena! A very big arena!"

"The arena? Are there any prizes?"

"Ah... yes... of course there is... I heard it was an elf... I'm not sure... but I heard someone above said someone bought some elves... the winner can own them..."

John, who was calm but exuding murderous intent, continued to ask: "...How many people participate in each competition?"

"Ten... or twenty... in most cases, dozens of people will die, and the one who survives to the end will be the winner, but they can also choose to surrender..."

"And what else? How are the activities of the project carried out? Is it an elimination tournament? Or just killing each other?"

"Depending on... the way it is conducted under different conditions... When there are puppets, it's a competition of the number of subjugations. According to the rules, you can get higher scores by killing the puppets with red circles on their heads. If there are no puppets, it's a competition of how fast you can clear the level. The arena itself is a huge maze with many traps. To survive, you need more than just skills, you also need some luck..."

"boring……"

John put down a tiger claw and took out a map from his pocket. He followed the other party's line of sight and asked, "Where are the slaves being held? You'd better tell me the truth or I'll tear your throat out..."

"It's the place with the red circle! But... you can't get here! Unless you pass through the gate of the arena... and then walk from the avenue to the entrance of this house..."

"Do we have to go through the arena... Is there no shortcut? How are the personnel doing the cleanup going to get back..."

"No! Even if you go through the auditorium, you still have to walk to the entrance of the arena. It's better to say that this is the back door where the corpses are abandoned. There is no convenient shortcut to the street..."

"Yeah……"

"Snap--" John, who had strangled the puppet with a knife, wiped the blood from his cheek and threw the corpse on the door lobby, using it as a heavy object to push open the door panel. In this way, many puppets would follow the smell of blood and come in here, and go directly to the stairs towards the direction of the arena.

He picked up the spear and turned it over in his hand when he was used to the feel of it. He was good at using weapons of any length, whether it was a giant axe, a short sword or a long sword. John's proficiency in weapons could be said to be perfect and impeccable. He would never survive on the battlefield without this ability. His principle was that no matter what state of weapon he picked up on the battlefield, he had to kill the enemy in front of him, whether it was a broken machete, a heavy blunt weapon, a slender sword, or even a crossbow and a sling.

"It seems that we can use it..."

There just happened to be quite a few such spare weapons here. John, who had lost his crossbow, pulled out his dagger and cut off a thick rope tied to the wall. The rope might have been originally used to catch puppets or something like that. It was stronger than ordinary ropes, and ordinary knives could not hurt it at all. However, he easily cut it open by rubbing the blade back and forth several times with his dagger.

"Skin bag... let's use this..."

After drinking up all the water in the leather bag to replenish himself, John used the sharp dagger to cut off a part of the leather bag, and made two holes on the edge by rotating the blade to let the rope pass through them. He then cut off the unnecessary part and tied a knot at the end - a sling was completed.

"..."

The dagger's sharpness did not decrease at all after cutting the rope, and it then easily cut the cloth on the body. John, who was trying to get gravel from the edge of the building, knocked the spike on the end of the handle against the wall, picked up the rough stones that were reinforced with cement, and put them into the cloth bag as ammunition for the sling.

"Too long...useless..."

Speculating that the arena might not be that spacious, John placed the spear on the table to shorten it, keeping the length at about one meter so that the center of gravity would not shift when swinging, and the centrifugal force could be used to hit the target's vital points when throwing.

There is no need to cherish them, these are just weapons that can take your life in one go, that's all.

"It's better than nothing..."

As for the remaining wooden strips, John sharpened both ends with a dagger and tied a leather rope cut into thin strips between the handles to secure them. Even if it was a crude weapon that could only be used once, it had to be used smoothly.

"..."

Finally, he took out the stone tablet from the arms of the leather armor.

If possible, he didn't want to rely on the power of the goddess to accomplish this.

They are all scum among scum who deceive humanity and are beasts who use humans as tools.

The power given by such people will undoubtedly bring about indiscriminate self-destruction and side effects.

But in order to continue the future of the elf girl.

Its existence is necessary.

There is nothing to be afraid of.

Let's go.

At the same time, the battle-hardened warriors entered the back door of the arena, and the inevitable battle was about to take place.